NEWS July 6, Wednesday RC Helicopter RC Pylon CL Aerobatics CL Speed CL Racing CL Carrier F2C

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1 NATS 2009 NEWS July 6, 2009 Dennis O'Brien still hucks like a pro at 65 years young. Academy of Model Aeronautics International Aeromodeling Center, Muncie IN; Web site: nats@modelaircraft.org; Copyright Academy of Model Aeronautics 2009 Edited by: Liz Helms Monday, July 6 RC Combat RC Pylon CL Aerobatics CL Speed CL Racing Tuesday RC Helicopter RC Pylon CL Aerobatics CL Speed CL Racing Wednesday RC Helicopter RC Pylon CL Aerobatics CL Speed CL Racing CL Carrier F2C

2 T RC Pylon The 2009 RC Pylon Nats is officially underway. Friends, families, veteran racers, and rookies have traveled thousands of miles to participate at the Nats. We had contestants arriving as early as Thursday to get their gear dialed in for Monday morning s Q-500 kick off. The weather has been incredible in Muncie with the highs so far in the 70-degree range. We did have a moderate rain shower on Saturday afternoon that stole an afternoon of practice time. The shower did not deter our frozen Canadian friends from getting in a couple burner flights. The forecast for the rest of the week looks promising and should make for a spectacular week of racing, not to mention, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Pete Bergstrom has stepped up and volunteered as the event director this year. Pete has guided us on the flightline as the starter for many years. Now, he ll guide us from pit area. We all know Pete will do a wonderful job; thanks for giving up your week to make ours. Last year s event director, Gary Freeman Jr., is preparing for the 2009 F3D World Championships. Go Team USA! In addition to Jr., Super Team Randy Bridge and Travis Flynn will also be missed this year. We ll miss spending time with our friends. Their absence will definitely opened up a couple spots on the podium. You can still support Team USA F3D at the Nats by purchasing raffle tickets for some spectacular prizes to be given away though out the week. Processing and tech inspection was yesterday at 11 a.m. for the 60 registered 428 Q-500 pilots and Q-40 entries. Heading up the coordination of Pete Bergstrom is the 2009 Pylon Nats event director. Gabriel Tahhan preparing to launch Vortex on Sunday. 2

3 processing, which is no small feat for 200-plus aircraft, are Darrol and Rhonda Cady with David Doyle running the Matrix generating computer. Darrol and Rhonda have volunteered for this assignment for many years and deserve some recognition. Considering the recession and World Championships absentees, I believe having 60-plus registered pilots is an exceptional turn out. Back by popular demand this year is the Wild Card. Stay tuned as we track who Gets In as the fastest two outside the top 14 from each Matrix. Scott Causey Texans Dub Jett and Mike Helsel during practice. Top: Marcus Blanchard's Vortex tight on the pins. Middle: Matias Salar's Loki was smoking fast during Sunday's practice. Bottom: Gabriel and Juan from Venezula have been practicing hard. Returning Q-40 NATS Champion Fred Burgdorf gets dialed in. Line-up begins to form Sunday morning.

4 CL Racing C Control Line Racing is one of the oldest forms of model aircraft competition. While once hugely popular and well attended, it has shrunk to a small but talented and dedicated group of competitors. This year there will 12 different events spread over six days of Racing. There is a wide variety of engine displacements, plane specifications, and levels of complexity within these 12 events. Contestants may choose to specialize in one event, or they may try to participate in as many events as they care to. The goal of almost all CL Racing is the same: to complete the race in the shortest time. Races are flown with two-to-three planes in the same circle, and the first plane to complete the required number of laps wins. Races are all run from a dead stop where the pitman hand starts the motor after the countdown. Races usually require one or more pits where the pitman catches the plane after the motor stops, refuels it, and restarts it by hand flipping the prop. There is a wide range of talent and costs required across the spectrum of events. Beginners can compete in Class 1 Mouse Racing with well less than $100 out of pocket. Opposite this is the internationally raced F2C Team Race event, where most competitors spend thousands of dollars on equipment and A B Team racer..a demanding F2C race. Two-man pit team with Texas Quickie Rat. Complex inside of a F2C Team Racer..049 powered Mouse Racer. 4 require an extreme amount of practice time to be competitive. This year will be the first official running of the.25 displacement Slow Rat event. Some contestants have their equipment well tuned for this event and it is growing in popularity. Speeds in Clown Racing have risen to where it is a fairly demanding event. Texas Quickie Rat continues to be the most popular and hotly contested event. The racing heats have been spread over several days for some events, allowing for some more and better quality of racing. Article and photos by Tim Stone

5 C CL Racing Day One: The 2009 Nationals kicked off Sunday with the running of Fox Race and Super Slow Rat race. The aircraft specifications for both events are the same, the difference being the engines used. Fox Race is limited to only stock Fox.35 stunt motors. Super Slow Rat allows almost any.25-plane-bearing engine. The.25 engines are just 2 /3 the displacement of the Fox.35, but due to modern porting and manufacture, they put out more power than the Foxes. Many fliers like the.25s because of their low vibration levels. Fox race winners from left, Bob Oge, Tim Stone, Wayne McDaniel and David Betz. Dave Hull and Les Akre with Super Slow Rat entry. It was nice to see these events revived since it was not run last year. Fox and SSR ran concurrently with the times being kept separately. In Fox, Bob Oge turned a respectable 5:58 for the win with Tim Stone second with a 6:14, followed by David Betz with 7:11. Running within the same heat races as the Foxes, the Super Slow Rat entries were generally much quicker than the Fox.35s. Motors used were mostly O.S. and Brodak.25s. Slow pits were a problem for most except Bill Lee s entry which posted a new record 5:14 for the win. Russ Green did the piloting for Bill. Bob Whitney followed with a 5:54 flown by veteran Dave Hallas, with Dave Hull and Les Akre taking third place. Article and photos by Tim Stone Wayne McDaniel, Dave Hallas, Russ Green. Fox and SSR pit area. 5 Event Director Jason Allen. Super Slow Rat winners. Bill Lee and Russ Green set a new record.

6 S CL Stunt Sunday, July 6 began with cool temperatures and 5-10 mph winds. The wind chill was not uncomfortable, but a far cry from the high heat and high humidity we have suffered in the past. This was a welcome relief to the former hazy-hot days in Muncie. The Beginner event, the Intermediate contest, and the pretty points gathering happened with almost mundane sensibility. Both Beginner and Intermediate started around 8:30 a.m. The Beginner event was assisted by members of several clubs. We had visitors from the Peoria Wyreflyers, the Chicago Circle Cutters, the St. Louis-based Lafayette Esquadrille, the New Albany Skyliners, and the Paducah Aero Modelers. As mentioned yesterday in NatsNews, the Beginner event is separated into two age groups. Five Juniors and Seniors vied for their top prize, while seven Open pilots took to the circle for their best scores. The Junior winners were Michael Paris, Clio MI, first; Amos Case, Brazil, second; Zack Stein, Abilene TX, third; Benjamin Mills, Ozark MO, fourth; and Justin Strauser, Abilene TX, fifth. The top dogs in Open Beginner were Bob Hudak, Grafton OH, first; Jack Dock, Pittsburg KS, second; Michael Stinson, Louisville KY, third; Robert Schroeder, Wauseon OH, fourth; Harry Crespo, Donora PA, fifth; Scott Pahlow, Grayslake IL, sixth; and Allen Burham, Jeffersonville IN, seventh. Workers for the Beginner event were Byron Barker as Pit Boss and Pull Tester; Steve Smith as Pull Tester and Critique Judge; Judges Wes Eakin, Eric Taylor, and Dale Josephson; Tabulators and Score Posters Jane Barker, Ruth Schroeder, and Teresa Burham. Event Director Above: Bob Hudak of Grafton, Ohio, bested the other six adult pilots in Open Beginner. His model resembles a profile Zlin. Left: Michael Paris of Michigan regained for the Paris family the top trophy of the Junior/Senior Beginner Stunt event. His sister Grace won it last year. It is nice to keep it in the family. Allen Brickhaus would like to thank all who assisted in the Beginner event, and the many who donated prizes for the contestants to choose after the contest closed. Letters of thanks will be going out to all donators. Thirteen pilots competed for the Intermediate class on the two circles east of the Beginner area. The event was sponsored by John and Buzz Brodak of Brodak Manufacturing and run by Event Director Bob Brookins and his able staff. The 15 pilots finished in this order: first, Chris Stevens (also Best Finish Award); second, Terry Bolin (also Best Brodak Kit Award); third, Left: Beginner Judges were Eric Taylor, Wes Eakin, and Dale Josephson. Thanks for a wonderful day s work.

7 Left: Shown is the complete set of prizes to be won and chosen by the contestants as their placements were announced. Beginner Judges were Eric Taylor, Wes Eakin, and Dale Josephson. Thanks for a wonderful day s work. Jason Greer; fourth, Jim Morway; fifth, Rob Young; sixth, Nelson Erbs; seventh, Ken Armish; eighth, John Gladfelter; ninth, Alan Buck; 10 th, Norm Gayer; 11 th,vince Bodde; 12 th, Samuel Niebel; 13 th, Pat Gibson; 14 th, Larry Fruits; and 15 th, Jim Pascetto. Workers who assisted Bob Brookins were: Joe Peters as Weight Master; Judges John Brodak, Jack Sheeks, Jim Vornholt, and Floyd Layton; Tabulators Elaine Brookins and Karyn Urtnowski; Runners Shirley Sheeks, Buzz Brodak, Darrel Harvin, and Bob Krugg; Pit Bosses were Shelly Gordon, Larry Lindburg, and Louis Rankin. Tabulators Ruth Schroeder, Jane Barker, and Teresa Burham kept the tab table working hard all day. Thanks also to the ladies. The Unofficial events finished around 1:30 p.m. and Advanced and Open pilots assembled at Allen Goff s Oneighty Building operated by his church. More than 70 beautiful models were carried lovingly into the air-conditioned gym and placed into the hands of Stan Powell and Bruce Hunt. Then the competitors gathered for the pilots meeting in the adjacent small theater room. Paul Walker and Howard Rush ran the meeting in an efficient and purposeful manner. The system is now set up to balance the circles with an equal number of strong-flying modelers and allowing a pingpong-ball draw to finish out the first objective session. Once the circles were set, then respective pilots came forward to draw for each successive flight on the Tuesday and Wednesday qualifying days. Once we left the room, we knew exactly where we were to be, and what time to be on hand for every flight on those two days. No one had any excuse that a schedule or program put them in a bad draw for the week. They had their destiny in their own hands. Four models were sitting on Right: Chris Stevens of Lexington, Kentucky, won the Intermediate class and was also chosen as having the Best Appearing Model. 7 Right: One of the two perpetual trophies to be awarded in Beginner is captured awaiting the ceremony. Both age groups have an equal-sized trophy to take home for a year. This Eagles Nest award was begun by the Bob Howard family and made by a Paducah Aero Modeler friend, Harry West.

8 This aggressive stance by second-place Intermediate winner Terry Bolin captures the spirit by which Terry takes this hobby in its seriousness. Terry s Legacy was chosen as the Best Brodak kit. the 19-point front row when the pilots reentered the gym. Phil Granderson, Matt Neumann, Kenny Stevens and Windy Urtnowski took the top honors for the assignment of points. The pilots then balloted for the Best Appearing Award to be handed out at the banquet on Friday night. Report and photos by Allen Brickhaus John Brodak and Jack Sheeks were the judges on the opposite Intermediate circle. The 19- point club from the top: Windy Urtnowski s tribute to his family pet Oriole was shown in this 19-point Tribute in yellow and black. Matt Neumann also was blessed with the magic number of 19 on Sunday. I wrote about the Westside Park Control Line circles on Sunday. Gerry Phelps allowed me to scan this photo for NatsNews of Dennis Adamisin (left and 14 years old) plus Gerry Phelps (right) at a contest held at Westside Park on August 24, The perspective of the shot is almost the same as one of the pictures posted in the Sunday edition of NatsNews. Kenny Stevens placed his new Randy Smith SV-22 in the fray and came back with a 19- point bird. Phil Granderson was one of the four pilots to capture 19 points during Sunday afternoon. 8

9 2548 Zero. Andy Panoncillo comes back from another flight. RC Combat What started out with cloudy skies really turned out to be a nice day on Sunday. In the morning we started with 2548 which is Scale Combat. There were 12 pilots, which is about the most I have seen in a while for Scale. One of the first things that is done before a Scale contest is they are judged if they are to scale and have correct markings. The underside of the wing can have any markings but the top of the wing and fuselage has to be based Don Veres and Keith Jones. on a design that was W flown during World War II. Most people fly the Zero created by Mark Schofield. This is an easy kit to put together and it flies very well. You also see some of his Mustangs as well as some aircraft that people have made themselves. One of the first things you will notice about Scale Combat is that compared to other types of combat, the planes do not turn as easily, which makes for more of a pursuit combat. This is more realistic of true dog fighting. After we were finished with 2548 we moved on to Limited B Combat. Limited B was designed to slow down the Open B, 9

10 which would lead to less crash damage. Well, it does help some, but there were plenty of crashes that really damaged planes. The way they limit the planes is by putting a stock muffler with a 10x4 prop and limiting the RPM to They run the same configuration as the 2548 planes but without the scale aspects. We were able to get up to seven rounds completed and once again a Gilkey was in the lead, but this time it was Eric. He is leading his brother by more than 400 points with three rounds to go. After Eric and Brian there is Andy Panoncillo with 1652 and Nick Windsor with With one day to go, we should see some strong flying. We will be starting early on Monday with 2548 for three rounds and then Limited B for three rounds. After the event the trophies will be given to the winners. Photos and report by Don Grissom Scores and Standings Please note: Scores are unofficial until tabulation is confirmed. Limited B Total Average Eric Gilkey Brian Gilkey Andy Panoncillo Nick Windsor Mike Fredricks Tom Neff William Drumm III Mike Bohlmann Bob Loescher Don Veres Aaron Snyder Mark Schofield Jerry Virnig Keith Jones Dirk Oosting Norm Names